[Letters]

"If one advances confidently in the direction of one's dreams, and endeavors to live the life which one has imagined, one will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” [Henry David Thoreau]

Dear Dad- I wish you could be here for the compassion project, so I could come home and tell you all of the exciting things that are going on in our community, and tell you that there IS hope in humanity. Dear Man I Volunteered With Today- I loved spending 2 hours working next to you! You reminded me that there are good men in the world, other than teachers and relatives. I was enthralled with our discussions on the American Education System, travel, college, and of course music and art. You told me what 2 other great men in my life have told me before, to study abroad, and to take non-major-focused classes just for the heck of it. Thanks for the reminder! Dear C-Aams- Your carpentry is as awful as my thumb jokes are good. Thanks for putting up with "Hey Mr. Aamot is it harder to not hit your thumb with the hammer because it's so big?" and (when you said you weren't very good with carpentry) "It's because you're all thumbs!" Thanks for giving my lame jokes a big thumbs up and for being a good sport. In all seriousness though, thank you for organizing(okay I use that word loosely) a volunteer project for us, one that we are actually connected with, and thank you for staying there and giving it your best longer than any of us. It really shows good leadership. 

P.S. Its interesting, in America, we're so worried about being ahead of China, and we're fretting because our science and math scores are lower than theirs. However, in China, they look at American schools and they wonder how our students are so creative. They literally have asked how they can make their students creative like we are. So America, don't lose sight of the importance of the fine arts. Creativity is essential for nearly every profession, and art is extremely important when making connections with other people. It is my hope that in our race for intelligence, we don't let art and music fall by the wayside.